Rowena Roman

R.R Shorts - The Fake Duchess (Rough Draft)

A.N: So as I work on the next chapter of Rowena Roman, I've also been working on short stories, ones of which that popped into my head but I knew that they would be far too short for anything major for an actual book, this is one of them. Which for those who don't know, involves with Anna Anderson, the woman who claimed to be Anastasia the young Duchess of the Romanov family that perished during the Russian Revolution towards the end of World War One.

There are things that I need to fix, mainly Anna's personality in comparison to how she acted in real life with this, which I will be working to do when I finish the second book and go through editing it. Until then I hope you enjoy this short story and if you have some thoughts or ideas about what could be changed please let me know in the comment section.

~T

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1929 January United States

Anna let out a tired breath as she stared out the window of her cottage; it had been a month since she had come here to hide from the press that kept asking questions. Though soon she would be heading to live with Annie Burr Jennings but for now she had to wait and bide her time until everything had calmed down. Though she couldn't understand why people were still making a fuss over if she was truly Anastasia Romanov, could they not just take her word and be done with it?

Turned when she heard knocking on the door to her home; she opened it and smiled. "Hello, may I help you with something?" only to stop and stare at the immense difference in height that she had with this person. Anna was rather short yes, but almost felt like a mouse in the shadow of a lion.

The one who stood at the door was a young woman rather than a man and was quite merely staring at her with ice blue eyes. "May I come in?"

Anna looked at the girl with a questioning stare, she had spoken in Russian, not English like so many other had. What's more this young girl, who looked to be in her late teens, was dressed in clothes that were more for a man then a woman, with slacks and black shoes that held a slight shine while wearing a long winter coat. But what drew Anna's attention the most was that this young woman had such lovely but strange blue eyes that seemed far more apparent in the snowy weather of January as short black hair was left down to the nape of her neck with no signs of it being styled. But had it been, or if she dressed in proper clothes and hair done in the latest trend, she would have had men flock to her in droves. Although with her height some might have mistaken her for a man like she had just done.

"May I come in?" the girl repeated. "It's rather cold out here."

"O-oh yes," Anna opened the door when coming out of her daze; she stepped out the way and allowed the young woman into her home. "Would you like something to drink?" she asked.

"Tea or coffee, I'm fine with ether." She said.

Anna paused in her kitchen and looked to the girl who removed her dark brown coat; she was dressed in a black turtleneck sweater and tanned trousers, even as she looked at this young woman somehow the air that was surrounding her made Anna feel like this girl had come from a faraway land. Though she couldn't place as to why that was the case.

As she entered the living room with a mug of coffee she saw the girl looking at some old black and white photos. "Those caught your eye I see,"

The girl didn't respond, she merely continued to stare at the photo. The photo in particular was that a girl, the one who held the photo frowned. "Is this you?" the girl asked.